Belt and Road News Network Media Workshop offers exchange opportunities for journalists
By Liu
Zhonghua, People’s Daily
A
short-term media workshop under the Belt and Road News Network (BRNN) kicked
off in Beijing on Sept. 16.
Dozens
of senior editors and journalists from Latin America and Africa attended the
opening ceremony. They were welcomed by smart robots nicknamed Xiao Meng who
opened their arms at the gate of the new headquarters of People’s Daily.
Themed
"new era, new ideas, new media, new technology", the workshop aims to
present China’s development of new media technology to the visiting editors and
journalists.
“It’s
amazing to see China’s rapid development in media technology,” said senior editor
Berhanu Mussa at Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation.
Media
plays a unique and significant role in the joint construction of the Belt and
Road Initiative (BRI). Chinese President Xi Jinping announced at the first Belt
and Road Forum for International Cooperation that China will put in place
follow-up mechanisms and develop new people-to-people exchange platforms such
as a Belt and Road news alliance.
Responding
on President Xi’s proposal, the BRNN was established as a key measure to deepen
the Belt and Road media cooperation and people-to-people exchanges.
The
short-term media workshop is one of the major projects since the official
establishment of the BRNN. The BRNN Secretariat originally planned to invite 40
journalists from Africa and Latin America to the workshop, but the number of applicants
went far beyond expectation.
After
the invitation letters were sent out, the Secretariat received substantial inquiries
about the workshop. Some BRNN members also recommended their peers from
non-member media outlets to participate in the activity.
In the
end, 50 senior editors and journalists from 46 media outlets in 26 countries
attended the workshop, including several editors-in-chief of mainstream
newspapers, heads of departments, as well as regional coordinating directors
and prominent journalists of well-known news agencies.
Marcelo
Cantelmi, editor-in-chief of the Foreign Desk of the Clarin Newspaper in
Argentina, addressed the ceremony, saying though China is a country on the
opposite side of the world for Latin Americans, they should look beyond that.
Substantial
evidence proves that China has more worth discovering, and Latin Americans
should visit the main cities there to get a real image of the country at a
close range, Cantelmi noted.
The media
workshop is hosted by the State Council Information Office of China, and was
jointly organized by the Secretariat
of BRNN (the External Relations
Department of People’s Daily) and Communication University of China.
It will
run for half a month, with a tight schedule and rich contents including
lectures, visits to media outlets, panel discussions and field researches.
During the workshop, renowned Chinese scholars and experts in international
studies will brief China’s economic and social development and fruitful results
in various fields over the past seven decades since
the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
The
visiting journalists will visit People’s Daily, Xinhua News Agency and other
state-owned media to experience and gain a deeper understanding of China’s new media
and artificial intelligence application.
The
journalists will also go to Chinese provinces including Shaanxi, Zhejiang,
Guizhou, and Guangdong for news reporting and investigation to have an
authentic experience of China’s achievements in poverty alleviation, ecological
conservation, big data industry, urban planning and proprietary intellectual
property rights.
“It’s
one of the priorities for African media to better tell African stories with
high technology and digital devices. Therefore, technology and digital devices
will be the key areas for us during the exchanges in the following
two weeks,” said Nwabisa Makunga, editor of the
Herald and the Weekend Post in South Africa, who attaches high importance on
the vital role of the BRNN in media training.
“The
workshop that lasts a dozen days is an opportunity for us to know more about
China’s politics, economy and culture and go deeper into what makes the BRI a
success, and that is what we as media has to do,” said senior editor Thierry
Ramasawmy of Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation who has a high expectation
toward the workshop.
The
visiting journalists agreed that the BRNN provides a platform for equal
dialogues and mutual inspiration among the BRI countries and their people.
Mainstream media outlets along the Belt and Road will further expand
cooperation, innovate cooperation modes, enrich cooperation content and jointly
build the BRNN into a platform of news sharing, exchanges and cooperation, as
well as communication.
A visiting
journalist takes picture of a screen displaying China’s new media technology.(Photo:
People's Daily/Chu Jiawei)
Belt and Road News Network Media Workshop offers exchange opportunities for journalists
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